Pages

Friday, 29 June 2018

Many years ago, after dinosaurs roamed the earth and before the age of the Internet, I dabbled in songwriting. I would often try and think of different scenarios and see it in my head like a mini film and then write a song. My page today is inspired by one of those songs called 'Lonely People' (its about being alone in a cocktail bar in the early hours) ...and be thankful I never uploaded the actual recording of it :)I have added some of the lyrics below so you can (hopefully) imagine the scene too.This will be my last page for my 'Inspired by' theme at AJJthis month. It's a watercolour and a little different for me as I like adding words but didn't as I thought it made it seem more empty and lonely and also I deliberately didn't paint all of the wine bottle.

I staged the scene that I wanted to paint.Please note that the glass had just a little drop of Marsala in, and the whisky is my husbands although I confess I used the empty bottle of wine from lunch. And the 'Whisky and Wine' in the song lyrics was just artistic license from a rhyming point of view - of course!

I wasn't sure that I was capable of painting this though - so I decided to take a photo on my tablet to help.

I used a grid I found in the photo editing app and drew a pencil grid in my journal and this definitely helped me to draw more accurate.

For fun I made a digital version as well...

however she doesn't look very lonely to me

I have had a wonderful fun month with hosting the 'Inspired by' challenge at AJJ (thanks Susi and Elizabeth for having me) and now looking forward to seeing what the July theme is :)

On the first day of June Yvonne's pageused a beautiful Gustav Klimt image and I realised I didn't know much about him so I made a note to find out more. But day by day I kept being inspired by other things people mentioned or showed and my list has grown quite long with the last one noted yesterday to investigate Colour theory as mentioned by Susi... :)

Thank
you so much to everybody that joined in with us at AJJ and sharing your
amazing pages and what inspired you... and thank you for all your
lovely comments left on my blog also.

I had fun with patterns and mark-making on this and it was a bit of a journey which started with blue card - a friend gave me a stack of A4 blue and pale yellow card that she didn't want so I am making good use of it :)

I used torn bits from books, dabbing on white paint with no real plan at this point

I used acrylic paint. gouache & Neocolour 2's

The stamped bubbles were using an old wooden stamp made by 'Anitas'

Its sort of looking a bit better - sort of :)

Added lots more colour and defining the lady more

I traced (on tracing paper) over the shape of hair to make a template for her hair which I then cut out of patterned paper and then made a template also for her dress and did the same. The beads for the necklace and earrings were done using a shiny red paint used for Pergamano.The digital quote is by Marcel Proust and the font is called Cheddar Salad BTN Cameo'.I wanted a quote that fitted with the lack of eyes which are often seen in Modigliani paintings.

Monday, 25 June 2018

I've had a packet of those lovely TH paper dolls die cuts with all 'the found ancestors', since last November and have just looked at them occasionally and 1) wondered what to do with them and 2) wondered who these people were, what were their stories and what would they think of times now. Then the other day I saw a fabulous, humorous page made by Bleubeard and Elizabeth and was inspired to make a page for AJJ 'inspired by' challenge (there are still several days left to join in this challenge).

So I used one of the TH dolls and sat him on the shoulder of my water colour on mixed media paper.Also used white and black posca pens and black Stabilo all pencil.I wrote a quote on hat; something I can imagine an ancestor might say. Now I must think of something to do with the other 100 die cuts :)

Friday, 22 June 2018

It's not hard to be outside in the garden or walking somewhere and see something to be inspired by - who wouldn't be inspired by beautiful tulips?For today's page for my AJJ 'Inspired By' themeI used both types of gouache paint ( I only recently learnt that there is an acrylic-gouache too) I used the usual one for the background and the acrylic-gouache (acryl-gouache) for the flowers.

And these were the tulips that I just had to paint

I like to take lots of photos for reference and to just enjoy

and I had to snap the first picking of the radishes

and birds are my favourite so I have lots of bird photos

And today I had a close encounter with a Collared Dove that came very near me to eat.

Yes I know the bird above is a Wood pigeon :) but I haven't got a photo of him yet...

but maybe.... just maybe... something magical might happen again ...like this video...

old camcorder footage before things went digital -

so the video is not perfect quality - but better than the thumbnail looks.

Wednesday, 20 June 2018

I often find myself drawing little Modigliani style people on scraps of paper because they are fun and it doesn't matter if they don't look totally realistic with their elongated necks etc - the main thing is it gets me practising drawing and also - its just fun to do.

So my page forAJJ 'Inspired By'was inspired by the artist Amedeo Modigliani. It's mainly watercolour and black pigment pen - drawn first in pencil and I digitally added the quote attributed to him.

Monday, 18 June 2018

Hello..........Todays piece for my AJJ theme 'Inspired by' was inspired by the wonderful Sheila aka Orange EsmeraldaSheila made a bowl of creative prompts - folded paper with prompts on that can be pulled out anytime to use. I thought this was a great idea, great fun and ideal for occasions where you I don't know what to do or where to begin.To give it a different twist, I thought about using a dice to help me with the random choosing of things. I wrote a list of prompts, rolled my dice and that resulted in this page.

The idea using the dice was to roll it 6 times and refer to the corresponding number on the list I created - then take that action. And as it was suppose to be fun I allowed myself the use of either Gesso or some colour in between each roll of the dice.

This is the prompt list I made with 6 sections for each roll of the dice.

When I made this page the numbers the dice gave me were 4-4-6-2-4-6which meant layer 1 = 4 which was ‘book pages’ so I used dictionary pages and a recipe page from a book Dave didn’t want ( hopefully). I tore the papers up, stuck them down and then used a coat of gesso on that.

The second roll of the dice also gave me a 4 and looking at my list that meant a 'free choice' so I chose to use Gellatos which I scribbled on top and then using the choice of Gesso between rolls, used that to blend the Gellatos out more.

Next came number 6 which meant add some lines which I did using wax crayons.

And then once again because I was allowed to either use Gesso or colour between rolls I chose to use some watercolours this time - just a little (a blue and rose madder) but enough to have some 'drippage' on the page.

The 4th roll of the dice was for the 'Imagery layer' and the '2' meant doing some collage. I found some junk mail that had a nice sofa and cut a word from another advert and stuck that down.

So before the next dice roll, my paint choice this time was a little Paper Artsy fresco chalk paint in 'mermaid, limelight and bouginvillea' which I added using a damp brush and then dabbed off with a tissue.

And the 5th roll was a '4' again (this dice seems to like that number) and this time '4' meant adding some faux writing which I scribbled with a white 'Signo uniball broad'.

Then finally my last roll of the dice was another '6' - random? or a weird dice? it only gave even numbers. This '6' was a 'free choice' so I decided to finish the page with a little stencilling using some more of the bougainvillea paint.

I really had fun doing this and will be trying this again and perhaps make some different prompts as well. If you've got a dice maybe you might like to try this sometime too.

Sunday, 17 June 2018

It is Fathers Day here in the UK today (and also in the U.S) so to honour and celebrate this, my journal spread today for the 'Inspired by' theme at AJJwas inspired by my late father.My dad was one of those lovely gentleman types and I probably was a bit of a daddies girl :) When I was a child he took me fishing and swimming and showed me the night sky where I learnt the names of the stars.. he started my interest in birds, nature and art and all sorts of things. He was one of those men that could turn their hand to anything and in later life he dabbled with watercolour painting.

This spread is a mix of stamping, painting and doodling using various watercolour mediums and mostly on paper first before gluing down with a glue stick.

Friday, 15 June 2018

Little things make me happy and trigger ideas, so today for my AJJ 'Inspired by' theme I was simply inspired by a mug... of the china variety and not a face :)

I drew and then painted my mug in watercolours adding some shadow with a Stabilo all pencil and finished with digitally added the words.

We have a few of these cheerful mugs in different colours with different cakes on and a dotty background and I just love them. Usually
they have tea or coffee in and accompanied by a homemade biscuit or occasionally by a piece of homemade cake - made by dear 'hubby' of course not me :)

And if I lack ideas, I always find something to be inspired by when walking around my garden

Wednesday, 13 June 2018

Well this was fun but I was really out of my comfort zone with today's 'Inspired by'... page for AJJMy page was inspired by the lovely Rike after I saw Rike - Chinese brush painting of frogsI've have had a set of Chinese brushes for at least 20 years and maybe tried them once or twice but didn't know what to do with them - but now I was really inspired to get those brushes out and find out more about this style of painting. First I bought a book 'Chinese brush painting: Flowers' by Joan Lokand then had to practise the brush strokes...yes I really need more of that too :)I used watercolours for this....

I cheated on this piece for the writing as it has been added digitally. I used a translator for that of course too - the top says 'who inspires you?' and the bottom just says Art by... and my name.

I am still learning how to hold the brush to do certain strokes and I
think if I continue it could take me a fair time to improve with this
style of painting 'if' I wanted to do it properly. So its just as well my theme is 'Inspired by' which
doesn't mean it has to look like the thing that inspired me exactly -
because I did struggle with this a bit as I couldn't get my wrist to
move the brush exactly as I wanted - but maybe that's because I have a bit of carpel tunnel in my right hand.

Ye Olde Brush set!

Below is my painting of a Grass Orchid and the reason why I digitally added the Chinese characters on my main piece.I used inks and water colours and started with a 'Brusho' spritzed background. I
got a bit carried away with the Chinese (hopefully) writing and it's
probably a lot bigger than it should have been. I used a translator and
it says my name (I hope) :)

Translate

About Me

My name is Gill (nick name Gibby Frogett )
This blog is all about my hobbies and interests.
I especially love mixed media, digital arts/craft and anything Steampunk. I started rubber stamping in 1995 and then discovered glass painting, fabric painting, & jewellery making. I also write poetry and have dabbled in song writing. When not crafting I love to watch the antics of the birds in my garden. I love photography too, although not very good at it.
I love to create and explore all sorts of arts and crafts. I'm currently enjoying learning about gouache and dabbling more with water colours :)
I do not sell or get paid to promote anything.